J.J. Abrams and the 'Cloverfield' Debate

We received a number of emails yesterday from people who had witnessed a mysterious trailer playing in front of Transformers press screenings. Not only is it completely bizarre to see any kind of advertisement before a press screening (in all my time doing this, I've never once watched a trailer at this sort of screening), but the film itself is one no one had heard a thing about. Well, that's a lie -- we have heard about Cloverfield before. Originally, word began leaking out of Hollywood that J.J. Abrams was producing a top secret project named Cloverfield, and that the film had already gone into production. Some folks immediately speculated that Stephen King's The Dark Tower was secretly filming under the name Cloverfield (you'll remember that J.J. Abrams became involved in that adaptation not long ago) -- one guy even started a blog claiming to be an actor in The Dark Tower, and confirmed that it was being filmed under the name Cloverfield. Well that was bogus; King's own assistant even commented here telling us so.

So what is Cloverfield? Cinematical's own Scott Weinberg attended one of the aforementioned Transformers screenings, and here's what he had to say about the trailer: "We open with a bunch of teens partying. Apparently one of 'em is leaving town tomorrow and everyone's kind of bittersweet about it. Then they hear a giant ruckus and head outside to see a massive explosion in the distance. Out on the streets people are running around all panicky-like. Then the head of the Statue of Liberty lands in the middle of the street and the date of January 18, 2008, pops up. Oh, and it's all done with handheld video cameras. Basically The Blair Witch Project meets the Godzilla remake ... which means I can't wait to see it." When I asked Scott what he thought the film was about, he replied: "I'm told it's a monster movie." I immediately wondered whether it was a remake of The Host, but both Scott and I felt that would be an insanely quick turnaround if true. However, we did both agree that Cloverfield is most likely a fake title. So what's the real title? Will J.J. Abrams unveil it at ComicCon? And is this not a clever way to market a film, or what?